Sunday summary: Williams – Transmission problems
The Williams team missed out on their Grand Prix, despite an encouraging start to the race for Rubens Barrichello.
Unfortunately, the Brazilian collided with Nico Rosberg, damaging his front wing. The rest of the race turned into a full-scale test session for him to gather data, before being forced to retire due to a suspected transmission problem that had already forced the rookie, Pastor Maldonado, to retire on the 9th lap.
Rubens Barrichello – Retirement
« It was a difficult race for us. I was pushed a bit at the start, but then I had a good pace and made quite a few overtakes, until the incident with Rosberg. I wasn’t planning to overtake him at that moment; I was defending my position against Kobayashi. I think we had different grip conditions and therefore different braking points. Rosberg braked earlier and was already in the middle of the corner before I could stop. The car was competitive today, which is positive for the upcoming races. »
Pastor Maldonado – Retirement
« We do not know exactly what happened with the car, we will have to study the problem with our engineers. There was no warning, we just stopped and it was over for us. The start was very good. There were some intense moments at the entrance of the first two turns, but I got through it well. I was well settled in the race, and everything seemed to be going well with the car, I felt good, and then it happened. Now, I just can’t wait to get back on the track in Malaysia. »
Sam Michael
After some issues with the rear wing adjustment, Rubens’s FW33 had a very good pace at the start of the race, and he was well on his way to progressing through the field, putting in competitive laps. We then had a slow puncture on the front tire and stopped to avoid it. […] Rubens was making a good recovery when he hit Rosberg’s Mercedes, damaging his front wing. We chose to continue in order to collect data on the tires and SREC. Towards the end of the race, Rubens retired due to a suspected transmission problem. We had a transmission failure on Pastor’s car at the beginning of the race, and we are currently investigating both issues. We are leaving this weekend with a lot of information.
